Published by Beacon Press in 2010, American Plastic treats cosmetic surgery as if it were the subprime mortgage crisis of the body. The deregulation of banking, the commercialization of medicine, and the targeting of some of America's most vulnerable citizens with high-interest medical loans created a perfect storm of greed and desire that played out on to bodies of ordinary Americans caught in the quest for perfection- or at least a better life.

03/03/2011

02/03/2011

The Week magazinenamed Laurie Essig’s American Plastic as their book of the week on Jan 28th.

Book of the week: American Plastic by Laurie Essig

The author, a sociologist, traces runaway consumer debt and the silicone-breast boom to a “cult of individualism” that says if you’re not rich, it’s your own fault.

POSTED ON JANUARY 28, 2011, AT 9:05 AM

(Beacon, $26.95)

The thesis of this book “sounds absurd,” said Buzzy Jackson in The Boston Globe. Spotting a common thread in boob jobs and credit cards, sociologist Laurie Essig declares that America’s “addiction to plastic” conceals a graver social ill. But while “Essig’s strength is her humor,” she actually makes a strong case that both runaway consumer debt and the silicone-breast boom are rooted in a “cult of individualism” that says if you’re not rich, it’s your own fault. “Among the reasons commonly cited for plastic surgery, trickle-down economics is rarely invoked,” said June Thomas in Bloomberg Businessweek. But Essig blames Reagan-era policies for launching the trend, then backs up her charge with evidence. Of the cosmetic-surgery candidates she spoke with, many planned to borrow, and “nearly all” claimed they were going under the knife “as a response to economic insecurity.” The reasoning? They needed to look good to hold a job or a spouse.